On the occasion of 75th Indian Independence Day, diaspora group South Asia Solidarity on Sunday launched a protest against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government on London’s Westminster bridge and sought Modi’s resignation.
A huge giant banner reading, “Resign Modi” were placed on the bridge. The group also held a candle light vigil outside the Indian High Commission to commemorate “all those killed under the Modi regime”.
In a statement, one of the organisers from South Asia Solidarity, Mukti Shah, said, “As India’s 75th Independence Day dawns, the country’s secular Constitution lies in tatters. Thousands of political prisoners languish in Covid-infected prisons and hundreds of thousands of people are grieving the loss of their loved ones as a result of the callous negligence and mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis.”
The diaspora group listed out ten reasons for demanding Modi’s resignation in a statement.
Referring to the incident in Jantar Mantar on August 8 when a group of people shouted inflammatory slogans calling for violence against Muslims, the group pointed out that “calls for genocide of Muslims” were being made openly in the Delhi. The event was organised by Ashwini Upadhyay, a former spokesperson of Bharatiya Janata Party.
The statement said, “Mob lynching, pogroms and police attacks on Muslim neighborhoods are now common occurrences.”
Speaking about sexual violence against Dalit women, the statement took note of the Hathras rape case, in which a 19-year-old Dalit woman had died on September 14 after four upper-caste men had raped her. The statement also mentioned a incident when a nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped, murdered and forcibly cremated in Delhi’s cantonment area on August 1.
“The prime minister has remained silent in the face of such unspeakable violence and Brahmanical misogyny,” said the South Asia Solidarity group.
The solidarity group criticised the three farm laws, saying that it will “push India’s already impoverished farmers into destitution and landlessness”.
The group took exception to the imprisonment of social activists and students under stringent laws like the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
The statement also took note of 84-year-old tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, who died in the custody. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease and later Covid-19, but still he was denied bail. Without any reliable evidence, the Jesuit priest was detained under the anti-terrorism law in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence case.
“We, a group of diaspora members and friends standing in solidarity with the people of India, are demanding the resignation of Narendra Modi, the chief architect of this violence, injustice, and criminal negligence,” South Asia Solidarity said.
